Design Date with Martyn Lawrence-Bullard

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard is an award-winning British interior designer based in Hollywood. An intrepid traveller, his new collection for Schumacher is an exotic feast of colour, pattern and texture. Martyn Lawrence-Bullard will be signing copies of his new book, Live, Love and Decorate, at 1.45pm on Sunday 25 September in the Centre Dome.

What is your earliest ‘design’ moment, the one that perhaps set you on your path?
My mother told me that as a three-year-old I redecorated the rooms of my sister’s dolls house, though I consider my first real experience to be selling pretty decorative things at Greenwich antiques market when I was twelve.

Career highlight? I’ve been so lucky in my career but particularly for the chance to create homes for amazing icons of mine like Sir Elton John, Cher and the writer Aaron Sorkin.

You have recently completed a range for Schumacher. Are you able to tell us a bit more about a travel experience that inspired your work? It’s inspired by trips to Istanbul, India, Greece, Italy and China. I loved the colours I saw, the weaves and embroideries and the fabulous Orientalist designs. It’s a culmination of all these elements, re-coloured, re-scaled and reinvented.

You are renowned for your ability to source striking artwork and curiosities. Are these the icing on the cake or focal points that get planned early? I love to create eclectic rooms, spaces that look like they have been collected together over the years. As I constantly shop the world for my clients, I buy things that catch my eye, often not knowing where they will end up at the time, but they seem to organically find a home. Often I will decorate a space around a previously chosen piece of art, or an amazing piece of furniture.

The world would be a more stylish place if… We all used our most beautiful and precious things every day. Never keep anything for ‘best’ as today is your best.